A new research study has concluded that the longer Americans sit, the sooner they die.
The study published by Peter T Katzmarzyk1 and I-Min Lee in BMJ Open examined the impact of sitting and watching TV on life expectancy in the U.S.
And the findings are scary.
Sitting Kills
The authors conclude that life expectancy in the USA would be two years higher if adults reduced their time spent sitting to less than three hours a day.
There’s a direct impact between TV viewing and life expectancy too – Americans’ life expectancy would increase by 1.38 years higher if they cut TV television viewing to less than two hours a day.
Sitting or TV watching are sedentary activities that have been linked to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease mortality and all-cause mortality.
The authors caution that, “Life expectancy is a population statistic and it does not apply to individuals” but conclude that “extended sitting time and television viewing may have the potential to reduce life expectancy in the USA.”
Life expectancy in the U.S. is 78.2 years, lower than Cuba, Chile and Puerto Rico.
On the life expectancy list prepared by the United Nations, the U.S. ranks 38th.
How distressing.
I suspect Americans watch more television and are glued to their iPads, Xboxes, PlayStations, iPods and PCs far more than people in other nations.
Bottom line, TV shows Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, American Idol and the video game consoles that I abhor are not only silly and useless but fatal too, ultimately.
I won’t be surprised if the lower life expectancy because of TV viewing and sitting results show a similar pattern in other countries too.
With the explosion in TV shows, the number of soaps and the hours spent in front of the TV in India, would it be fair then to conclude that Ekta Kapoor, the force behind Balaji Telefilms, is single-handedly reducing the lifespan of Indians? 😉
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I believe no one is gonna care abt what this study says.
I myself find it a bit funny..!!
Btw, in this case, India should have the lowest life expectancy of all 😛 ..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Wonder what the relationship between watching Ajith’s movies and life expectancy is? 😉
Endured a double dose – Mr & Mrs. Ajith – with Amarkalam two days back.
Still reeling from the deadly assault.. God, what an awful, hideous ending.
Between the two Ajiths my priceless life is cut short by at least a decade! 🙁
@ SI – “Endured a double dose – Mr & Mrs. Ajith – with Amarkalam two days back.
Still reeling from the deadly assault.. God, what an awful, hideous ending.”
Back in those days when I didn’t have my sights beyond Kollywood, I considered Amarkalam a decent movie with a couple of nice songs.
But since then, I’ve watched so many fine Hollywood movies (after I became an avid reader of the Incredible SI blog).
If I were to watch Amarkkalam now (which I probably will not), I will most certainly have a different opinion.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Except for that one song on the hill, Amarkalam is the typical Ajith vomit that his fans love to lap up and can’t get enough of.
Do you mean the song “Satham illaadha..” sung by SPB?
I also like two other songs.. “Unnoda vaazhadha vaazhvu..” and “Meghangal ennai thottu”…!!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Yes, I was referring to Satham Illatha….
Listening to it as I type.
Nice, even after all these years since the movie’s release.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
A rare Tamil film song with powerful lyrics.
Off topic
Is SI gonna watch Billa 2?
SearchIndia,com Responds:
SI is unlikely to but my Sweetie-pie will see it & review it.
SI is in extremis!
“SI is in extremis!”
Did watching Amarkalam bring u closer? 🙁
SearchIndia.com Responds:
No, because I’ve seen and survived Varalaru and Aalwar.
in extremis!… you been sitting longer?..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
No, just living longer. 😉
Off-topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P-s22uUuWQ
Have never seen this kind of a speech given by any politician in India!!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Watched the full 25:58 minute speech in your video link.
Impressive achievements, if they are true.
But it’s going to be hard to replicate the Gujarat model elsewhere for various reasons – other states are so far behind, poor leadership, absence of enterprising citizenry etc.
Modi is obviously right when he emphasizes importance of infrastructure and need for a vision.
But will infrastructure lift all boats i.e. improve the lot of all people? I doubt it. Look at Mumbai. Clearly, the metropolis has a fair bit of infrastructure (roads, trains, power etc, the stuff that Modi emphasizes in his speech) but still millions live in inhuman conditions amid abject squalor and filth.
SI’s prediction – At this rate, Gujarat will secede from India or at least try to in the not-too-distant future.
Prosperous, successful and educated people don’t want to be associated with poor, dirty, stinking, illiterate/semi-literate people. That’s in the human DNA. Gujarat’s economic success story bodes grave dangers to the state in future not merely from the Pakistani terrorists but from within as well.
Now if only the Modi government had not been complicit in butchering Muslims.
I believe infrastructure has the ability to lift most boats if the pace and breadth of infrastructure development is commensurate with expanding consumer appetite and needs.
Mumbai has antiquated infrastructure built during colonial times; it would have been barely adequate some forty years back, much less in the present. With thousands of migrants arriving in Mumbai everyday from different parts of the country, expecting antediluvian highways, railroads, utilities, buildings and such to cope with the ever-increasing burden is merely wishful thinking.
On the other hand, if Mumbai had kept updating its infrastructure -like building a metro, new highways etc.- and also controlling the migration to a certain extent, and there was still poverty and squalor, I feel your argument would have been sound.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Except in some unusual circumstances, Democracy (as we have it in the world) is mostly incompatible with good governance. From the perspective of citizenry, the ballot is always a poor substitute for bullet. It’s the law of human nature that people seldom give up their comfortable position without violence or at least the threat of violence. India’s tragedy is that the governance is not a complete travesty and the citizenry does not have the capability for complete revolution. It’s an uneasy co-existence between the tiny governing elite and the vast huddled masses with the balance of power tilted in favor of the governing class. India will continue to plod along as it has over six decades.
Even if Mumbai were to build a dozen more highways or expand the Metro, I don’t see that making a difference to the millions who would still be compelled to live in abominable squalor and filth.
There is infrastructure of the highways, bridges and trains and then there’s the infrastructure of equity and compassion. India has neglected the former and pays only lip-service to the latter. Food grains rot in the government warehouses, yet people die of starvation or live at barely subsistence levels.
If you’re talking of controlling migration a la Shiv Sena, then democracy goes out the window.
Watched Maatran’s teaser?
Plain rubbish.
And you know what? I guess copycat Anand strikes again.. but we’ll know for sure only after the movie releases
SearchIndia.com Responds:
If this is the Maatran teaser you’re referring to, you f*cking wasted my time.
Nothing in it!
But 10% of Tamil Nadu must have wetted their jetties with oohs and aahs over this junk.
As I’ve said countless times, stupid f*cks (audience) deserve the stupid movies.
“If this is the Maatran teaser you’re referring to, you f*cking wasted my time”
Ha ha. I told you it’s plain rubbish 😛
Why did you even bother watching it?
“But 10% of Tamil Nadu must have wetted their jetties with oohs and aahs over this junk.”
Surprisingly, a lot of viewers share the same opinion as you and I. But as always, there are some stupid f*cks raving about this junk.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Billa 2 is releasing in the U.S. today. And No, I’m not watching it.
Naveen has kindly accepted the pain of enduring the worthless actor’s torture.
So (barring any last-minute hiccups) SearchIndia.com should have the Billa 2 review later tonight, i.e. Thursday late night/Friday early morning (U.S. Eastern Time).
Here are reviews of a few Ajith Movies from the SI Blog archives:
Billa
Aegan
Mankatha/strong>
“Billa 2 is releasing in the U.S. today. And No, I’m not watching it.
Naveen has kindly accepted the pain of enduring the worthless actor’s torture”
SI ku oru adima sikkitaan. :P.. lol
“So (barring any last-minute hiccups) SearchIndia.com should have the Billa 2 review later tonight, i.e. Thursday late night/Friday early morning (U.S. Eastern Time).”
In multiplexes like Sathyam here, reservations open on Wednesday for the Friday releases.. I checked Sathyam cinemas website at 6 am and know what? Tickets already sold out for the first three days..!
Reflects the hype that the movie has generated.. I booked for Monday and I’ve made it a point not to read any reviews before I watch the movie. Better to see for myself how the movie is.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Like the crucified Jesus on the Cross, it’s the goodness in his heart that led Naveen to accept the pain and heavy burden on behalf of all of us. 😉
going through the comments section of your Billa review.
Can’t stop laughing at the comments made by Ajith fans and old SI’s replies to them.
Seems to me a lot of the Tamil filmstars owe their popularity to a significant extent on how they carry themselves in real lives.
Ajith and Rajni for example (and I am sure others) enjoy a reputation for humility and being generous donors to worthy causes.
It is hard to see Hollywood or Bollywood stars enjoying that kind of a relationship dynamic with their fans. It may also explain why it is easier for them to seamlessly transition into political life.
Btw, (on a lighter note) is this Naveen fellow hoping to gain salvation in the next life by enduring all this pain? Watching and reviewing any of these movies is probably categorized as cruel and unusual punishment under the Geneva Convention.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Btw, (on a lighter note) is this Naveen fellow hoping to gain salvation in the next life by enduring all this pain?
Please don’t mock Naveen.
As I wrote yesterday, like Christ on the Cross or Rama after Sita’s abduction by Ravan, the valiant Naveen with ‘charity in his heart and fearless in his soul’ is bearing the pain on behalf of all of us.
To endure that clown Ajith Kumar for 2+ hours, one must be a combination of Alexander the Great and Jesus Christ in the same body.
Salman Khan enjoys similar popularity in bollywood although one by one homeless people count in mumbai is going down :-p
yes yes… I am a Tyagi and should change my name to Idi-thaangi.
Not once or twice but trice during Bol Bachchan I was so tempted to walk out.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Neenga Rombha Nallavaru. 😉
Found this gem in your link 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=wEFBQjCnFao
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Watched the video in full.
I bow before the wisdom of Nityananda.
The fella is far too clever.
What great acting!
Amazing performer.
I strongly recommend him for Billa 3! 😉